If you are mortgage free how much does it cost to live?

[Notimelikeyesterday]

We could be mortgage free if we relocate...
But DH would have to give up his job, I could just find another/go supply/bank as I'm a key worker....preferably we'd both give up stressful jobs and get some minimum wage ones... we have 1dc...would like another...
Could we survive/ have a decent quality of life/ afford basics if we did this?

The only expenses I won't have upon retirement are the mortgage and the insurance to cover the mortgage. Everything else will be the same. 🤷‍♀️

We've been mortgage free for about five years now. It's a great feeling and we have savings for the first time in our lives.
We both dropped a day at work so both do a four day week. However I don't think either of us would want to give up well paid jobs and survive in minimum wage. Utility bills, food, holidays, cars are all expensive to buy and run.
It would be awful to move to pay off your mortgage and then still find yourself struggling at the end of the month.

And pension payments.
By then you will be taking out, not paying in.

Such a good answer ⭐

I paid off my mortgage about a year ago. DH and I both pay £800 each into our joint account and we have another £900 paid into our account from other means. £2500 a month covers council tax, insurance, fuel for car, electric, gas, water rates, food, toiletries, cleaning products, lunch out twice a week, a few coffees out, Virgin media package with Sky movies, Sky Sport and BT sports, 1 takeaway each week. There is often £200 money left over.

Reading betweent the lines, it sounds like maybe you're both a bit burned out?

I think moving to a minimum wage job isnt as relaxing as you think. I worked in a supermarket after having a child, having had a professional career. I HATED it. Yes, I didn't take work home with me, but I wasn't treated well and my confidence took a nosedive. Suddenly, 20 year old idiots thought they were better than me.

I soon swapped it back for my professional work and found I felt at peace again.

The grass is rarely greener. Maybe you just need a bit of a break? Or maybe change career and build yourself up again, but NMW jobs really aren't all that. You'll soon be working hard but with no recognition for your strengths and a tiny wage packet.

If you got a full time teaching job you'd be earning in region of £38k. Much more than minimum wage and better holidays so you wouldn't have to pay child care.

£2k per month without mortgage to live comfortably. This allows for one holiday per year too.

This thread is a year old. Why has it been resurrected?

Council tax can actually be higher in poorer areas. It's been mentioned lately in the news that a modest house in Burnley can be paying more council tax than a luxury property in Kensington.

One way to look at it is that not having a mortgage is equivalent to having the equivelant money in a payrise. So, say you were earning £35k/y and your mortgage was £1.5k/m, then after paying it off, you would have a disposable income as if you were earning £53k/y.

By the time you are getting into a position to to make significant overpayments or even pay off your mortgage completely you are (generally) going to be well into you mortgage term and the monthly repayments will probably be a much smaller part of your monthly income than they were early on.

I paid off my mortgage in my early 40's as the monthly payment was by then a much smaller outgoing, less than my council tax in fact.
It was by increasing my payments to a more significant (but still affordable) level that I paid it off early.

To get back to the OP's question, life still costs to live but it is one less bill to have to worry about.